


Something to Come Back to

by MJLightwood



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Day 1, M/M, OlivarryWeek2016, The Little Mermaid AU, fairytale AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2016-06-05
Packaged: 2018-07-12 09:51:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7097611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MJLightwood/pseuds/MJLightwood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oliver didn’t expect to live when the Gambit went down, much less be saved by a merman with the most beautiful green eyes he can remember.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something to Come Back to

**Author's Note:**

> Everything is more or less the same except Barry is a merman. Also, it's Olivarry Week and ahh I'm so excited! Enjoy!

Barry had spent the past few days tailing a ship. Everyone warned him against it, saying how dangerous it was, how mermaids often got stuck in fishing nets if they weren’t careful. Most merpeople were confused with Barry’s obsession with tailing ships and boats, after all, it was a fishing net that claimed Barry’s parent’s life.

But that was the exact reason Barry was so keen on finding out more about these humans, these creatures with two legs instead of a tail that no one seemed to know about. Barry could list out everything merpeople knew about humans. One, they were dangerous and cruel. Two, they had two legs. Three, they only lived on land or above water and four, stay away from them.

And it wasn’t enough for Barry. It didn’t explain why these people would take his parents away from him. It didn’t explain the natural fear his people had for them. So he tailed boats and ships, observing them from afar, remembering all that he could before reluctantly returning under the waters to his home. 

Home was a loosely used word. As an orphan, he lived with Joe and Iris, it was better than nothing but it never felt right. Iris was his best friend, Joe was the closest thing he had to a parent, but it didn’t feel right, it didn’t feel like home. 

Maybe that was another reason why he liked to swim far far away, further than most merpeople dared. There was a certain sense of belonging that disappeared with his parent’s deaths. He didn’t know what he was expecting, to find a home again maybe, to find the reason his parents were so horribly taken from him perhaps.

But it definitely wasn’t a ship sinking in one of the most violent storms Barry had ever witnessed, or the sole survivor Barry stumbled across among the wreckage.

-

Oliver could only register the fact that he was drowning and was probably not going to make it.

His thoughts were muddled, names thrown around just like the waves threw him around. Sara, Dad, Thea, Mom, Laurel, Tommy, everyone he could remember, everyone he cared about.

He desperately clung on to every name, tried to focus on one so he wouldn't panic, but it was too much, the crashing waves and seawater everywhere.

He could focus on fragments, like Sara’s piercing voice when the waters claimed her and Laurel’s photo in his wallet. Then it was pulled away as seawater entered his nose and the only thing he could focus on was how he couldn't breathe.

Suddenly, an arm wrapped around him, and naturally Oliver tried to kick, mistaking the arm for something that wanted to pull him under. His attempts were futile, the strength in him gone after his fight with the ocean.

And seeing no other choice, he gave in as his eyes slowly fluttered shut. Letting the arm pull him across the ocean.

This wasn’t a bad way to go after all wasn’t it?

-

Humans were heavy, very heavy, that was something Barry was going to add to his memory. The sole survivor he found had blond hair, and Barry was sure he’d seen him on the deck of the ship he’d been tailing for the past few days. 

Barry probably wouldn’t admit it in a thousand years, but he did think that the blond was cute, if not handsome, enough to make him blush whenever he cast a glance over at a rock that was consequently Barry’s hiding spot, making Barry think that he was caught red handed spying at the ship from afar. 

He also wouldn’t admit that he was strangely reluctant to leave the ship when dawn broke because of a certain gorgeous passenger onboard. 

He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind as he dragged the blond to the nearest land his eyes could see. He was pretty sure that the merpeople were right about humans not being able to breathe underwater. But that was the only thing he agreed on with his people, he didn’t really think that humans were dangerous, the blond had looked so peaceful with his eyes closed as Barry dragged him through the roaring waters. 

He deposited the human on the shore of an island, and he stayed as close as he could until sky started changing color and the first rays of the sun started shining. He watched the blond’s breathing slowly become regular and even again. Then he decided that he couldn’t stay there forever, as much as he wanted to, so he turned around, letting the human rest on the shore where Barry hoped that he would be safe.

It was at the exact moment that Barry was about to swim back to Joe and Iris that he heard a splutter of coughs from the body behind him. He turned around to find the human slowly letting his eyes flutter open. 

Barry’s first thought was of how blue and pretty they were. His second thought left his lips before he could stop the words. “Are you okay?” He was answered with a groan. 

Those blue eyes blinked slowly, trying to get his eyesight to focus. It gave Barry time to think, did he really want to stay here? For once, he decided to listen to the warnings of the merpeople. So with a heavy heart, Barry turned around and swam away. 

-

Oliver remembered the incident fuzzily, he remembered the Gambit sinking and Sara getting pulled away by the waves. He remembered drowning, the sheer panic in his heart as he was sure that he was going to die. 

Yet here he was. 

He remembered one other thing, but it seemed way too out of this world. He wasn’t sure if it was something his brain had conjured up to make sense of his situation or a real memory.

It was a mermaid, or merman to be exact. He remembered soft brown hair and shining green eyes. He remembered strong arms pulling him through the rough waters. He remembered a voice, asking if he was okay, but when he turned to face it, it was gone. 

He tried not to let himself dwell on those thoughts but there wasn’t much to do on the island. At night, to fulfil his longing curiosity, he would sit at the seashore, let his feet be washed by the gentle waves, a stark difference from the roaring waves that threatened to take his life just days before.

And he would wait, to no avail, before he got up, kicked the sand and walked away defeated. But today he saw the waters ripple, the slightest hint of a tail appearing and disappearing back into the waters. 

He raised his eyebrow, his heart beating a thousand times faster in his chest. Maybe it wasn’t a dream after all. “I can see you, you know,” Oliver found the voice to say. 

The merman emerges out of the water, the dim moonlight shining on him. The moment green eyes lock with Oliver’s is the moment Oliver lets out a breath he didn’t know he’s been holding. “You’re real,” Oliver says.

“I could at least get a thank you for saving your life,” the merman says, leaning on a rock nearby for support. 

Oliver chuckles. “What’s your name?” he asks. 

“Barry.” 

“Well then, thank you, Barry,” Oliver says with a smile. Subconsciously, Oliver finds himself getting up and stepping into the waters, until he’s standing right beside Barry, close enough to make out the slightest tinge of brown in his green eyes.

He commits those eyes to memory when it’s time for the merman to swim away. Barry always comes back, but Oliver always talks to him like it’s the last chance he gets to see the merman. If there’s one thing that’s constant throughout his years on the island, it’s Barry. It doesn’t matter if he has Slade, or Shado, it doesn’t matter when Sara comes and goes, Barry is always there, ready to listen to Oliver’s stories with the brightest green eyes and perkiest smile. 

Until Barry suddenly disappears for days. On the first, Oliver passes it off, something must’ve come up, albeit in the darkest hours before dawn, but Oliver does everything to not panic, they’ve both missed a day or two of talking more than once. After three days, Oliver worries, he spends mornings by the sea too, waiting for Barry to appear out of the waters and dissolve his fears. 

After five days, Oliver tries to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach and the sharp stabs in his chest because Barry’s fine, he must’ve just forgot or something. Except the thought of Barry forgetting a nightly routine that they’ve been keeping up for years only drives another sword of pain into Oliver’s heart. 

On the sixth day, Oliver jogs to his usual spot only to find a crumpled heap of something, no, someone, laying on the sand. Once he gets closer, he recognizes the brown hair and the lean arms, except, where a tail used to be there were two legs instead. 

“Barry!” Oliver shouts as he sinks to his knees by Barry’s side, ignoring the sharp pain of the sand scratching his skin. “Are you okay? Oh my god what did you do?” 

Barry groans in reply. Oliver runs his fingers through the familiar brown hair, chunks of sand falling through his fingers. His other hand reaches for Barry’s wrist, trying to find a pulse and sighing in relief when he finds one. Slowly, green eyes start to open again. 

“What did you do?” Oliver mumbles before pulling Barry into a hug. Barry opens his mouth to explain, but no words come out. Then before he knows it, Oliver’s leaning down to plant a kiss on his lips, one that catches Barry by surprise but he melts into it anyway, kissing Oliver back.

“Well, I didn’t think it’d be that easy,” Barry says with a smile as they pull away, foreheads resting on each other’s. 

Later he’ll tell Oliver all about how he traded his voice for legs with an old sea witch, about the deal he made with her: He’d get to keep his legs forever and get his voice back if Oliver kissed him, and Oliver will shake his head and pull Barry closer into his embrace, thinking about how he got so lucky with Barry, how after every single hell this island seemed to put him through, Barry was always and would always be there for him to come back to. 

But for now, Oliver smiles and Barry pulls him into another kiss. And all Barry can think as he’s being kissed is how everything seems to feel like home, how he finally feels like he belongs again, right here with Oliver.


End file.
